From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Assessing the Effect of Hydrocarbon Oil Type and Thickness on a Remote Sensing Signal: a Sensitivity Study Based on the Optical Properties of Two Australian Oils and the HYMAP and Quickbird Sensors

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

We measured the light absorption properties of two naturally occurring Australian hydrocarbon oils, a Gippsland light crude oil and a North West Shelf light condensate. Using these results in conjunction with estimated sensor environmental noise thresholds, the theoretical minimum limit of detectability of each oil type (as a function of oil thickness) was calculated for both the hyperspectral HYMAP and multispectral Quickbird sensors. The Gippsland crude oil is discernable at layer thickness of 20 micro metres or more in the Quickbird green channel. The HYMAP sensor was found to be theoretically capable of detecting a layer of Gippsland crude oil with a thickness of 10 micro metres in approximately six sensor channels. By contrast, the North West Shelf light condensate was not able to be detected by either sensor for any thickness up to 200 icro metres. Optical remote sensing is therefore not applicable for detecting diagnostic absorption features associated with this light condensate oil type, which is considered representative for the prospective Australian Northwest Shelf area. We conclude that oil type is critical to the applicability of optical remote sensing for natural oil slick detection and identification. We recommend that a sensor- and oil-specific sensitivity study should be conducted prior to applying optical remote sensors for oil exploration. The oil optical properties were obtained using two different laboratory methods, a reflectance-based approach and transmittance-based approach. The reflectance-based approach was relatively complex to implement, but was chosen in order to replicate as closely as possible real world remote sensing measurement conditions of an oil film on water. The transmittance-based approach, based upon standard laboratory spectrophotometric measurements was found to generate results in good agreement with the reflectance-based approach. Therefore, for future oil- and sensor-specific sensitivity studies, we recommend the relatively accessible transmittance-based approach, which is detailed in this paper.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Assessing the Effect of Hydrocarbon Oil Type and Thickness on a Remote Sensing Signal: a Sensitivity Study Based on the Optical Properties of Two Australian Oils and the HYMAP and Quickbird Sensors
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/08aa0078-2c7f-42cb-ba0c-58b6443acbab
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        110.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        156.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        156.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        110.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        110.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Assessing the Effect of Hydrocarbon Oil Type and Thickness on a Remote Sensing Signal: a Sensitivity Study Based on the Optical Properties of Two Australian Oils and the HYMAP and Quickbird Sensors". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/assessing-the-effect-of-hydrocarbon-oil-type-and-thickness-on-a-remote-sensing-signal-a-sensiti